After Taz's question - an addiction query.

[PinkFizz]

Okay,If we take drugs exessively we are all told it is very wrong(and it is) and that we have a drug addiction are are drug addicts.
If we drink way too much we are told we have a drink problem and that we are either binge drinkers or at worst alcoholics.
But what about cigarettes?? What if you smoke 60 a day?? Nobody seems to label you or make a big deal and yet it is just as bad.

[ummmm1]

I think Id rather snort a few lines at the weekend than be addicted to fags, but as it happens I smoke the fags and not the drugs. Im sure I am doing more harm to my body though

[rugeleyboy]

chain smoker?

[PinkFizz]

But nobody preaches as much as the other two (drink and drugs)

Which is worst for the body of the three??

[curly-milf]

stand by for a barrage of comments there ummmm

but your right, it is just that cigerettes and alcohol are legal, and socially acceptable, to the point where people would not stare and comment at someone smoking or having a beer in public, but would at someone taling drugs....
what about the many people addicted to prescriptive drugs,,,

[joanne713]

i think that illegal drugs are worse, however i was told that if alcohol had recently been invented then it would be put as a class A drug because of the addictiveness. all as bad as each other i think but hey a little bit of what you fancy does you good!!

[PinkFizz]

I agree,all are equally addictive, I am just curious as to how come if you told somebody you drank 10 pints a night they would immediately tell you,or at least think,that you had a real problem,yet if you said you smoked 40 cigarettes a day they wouldn't probaly say a word,apart from," god,bet that costs a bit".

[ummmm1]

Dont worry Curly, im use to it.

[curly-milf]

lol......ummmm

i smoke, i started at at the age of 29, i knew everything about its dangers, but i still choose too, if it was invented today, it would be class A,

very moreish though............

[rugeleyboy]

i gave up smoking about 2 years ago..............mainly because the lad i work with smoked about 15 fags whilst he was at work and i found myself keeping up with him!!

we went into work on tuesday to clean up and he must of had 3 in a space of 30 mins, when i said you smoke to much he denied/forgot he had already smoked 2!!

[RATTER15]

I think its because cigarettes are not a mind altering substance!! and you don't go out killing people for the next fix or in some drunken rage!!

[jedimistress]

Smoking does not alter your brain and turn you into an abusive jerk. The drink and drugs tend to affect others close to you in a greater way than smoking does. And no one ever tells me I drink or drug too much.

[PinkFizz]

Interesting - so excuse me for being dumb,but how do drink and drugs alter your mind but cigarettes/nicotine don't?

[RATTER15]

Well pink! when you drink alcohol you get drunk, when you take drugs you get stoned wasted whatever you want to call it, both are affecting the thought process, nicotine does not. We are not talking about medical affects on the brain, just the state of mind.

[PinkFizz]

ooohhhhh,well I still think smoking is bad for you - lol

[RATTER15]

Yes, smoking is very bad for you!!!

[chicklin]

Dunno how you can say smoking doesn't affect those around you as much as the other two, jedimistress - haven't you heard of passive smoking? That affects non-smokers in a really serious way. Making you dead is pretty serious, I'd say.

[jedimistress]

I didn't mean physically close to you, I meant emotionally close to you. Perhaps you have been lucky enough not to have loved and been close to an alcoholic or drug addict in your life, so maybe that is why you chose not to understand my point but pick at it.

[joko]

it is perfectly possible to take regular amounts of drugs such as heroin, lsd, laudanum, etc and be healthy and safe and it have no effect on your life - its just a case of control - lots of people do it and i know of two myself, but if you control usage and limit it to only pure stuff, it can just be a recreational bit of fun, it is the people who take it that cannot control it and become junkies and become reliant on it.

[LazyGun]

Pink, not sure I would agree with you there.
Anyone smoking 60 a day is definitely addicted, and many argue that nicotine addiction is harder to break than drugs or alcohol (I dont necessarily think thats true personally, but many do).
In previous decades, it is true to say that smoking was no big deal, and was even thought of as a positive, manly and/or glamorous thing to do.
That is hardly the case now..... smokers are in a decreasing minority in the adult population, it is being banned or has been banned in places of work public transport, and enclosed public spaces, there are frequent articles in the media on the health dangers posed by smoking, including the latest from the DoH on the TV.

I would say that smokers are on the way to being the latest social leper, along with obese people and chavs.

[chicklin]

Take your point, jedimistress. Didn't mean to dig and you're right I haven't been affected in the way you meant. I apologise.